


Girl Things

by violet_quill



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Challenge: Voices and Vaginas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-22
Updated: 2010-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 08:17:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/135116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_quill/pseuds/violet_quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginny wants to know about periods. So she makes the mistake of asking her brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girl Things

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2005 for my own "Voices and Vaginas" challenge on Livejournal, inspired by the Vagina Monologue. Originally posted [here](http://violet-quill.livejournal.com/121825.html).

The bigger girls on the playground are talking about periods. I don't like the way they're laughing, especially that girl with the black hair tied back in plaits with blue ribbon. My brothers Fred and George are in her grade and they say her mum packs _two_ pudding cups in her lunchbox but she won't share with _anyone_. If I had two pudding cups I would give one to my friend Marcie, because her mum only gives her carrots and fruit cups, the kind with pineapples, and she hates pineapples and I do too.

I don't know what a period is, but now I _really, really_ want to know, because the way they're talking about it sounds important. But then the girl with the pudding cups catches me listening and tells me to go away and calls me a shrimp and then one of the other girls says she shouldn't be mean to me because my brothers are cute. I guess they mean Fred and George because no one ever says Percy is cute and Ron is younger than them.

Then the mean girl tells me _my_ plaits look like two ugly carrots sticking out the side of my head, so I tell her she has a big pimple right on the middle of her forehead even though she doesn't but she runs to the bathroom and spends the rest of recess looking anyway.

I think about asking Mum when I get home that day but something about the way those girls were laughing makes me think it's not a parent thing. The last time I heard something at school and asked what it meant I got my mouth washed out with soap - which was _so unfair_ because how am I supposed to know what's a dirty word and what's not when no one tells me? This one started with a "B" and Dad turned that red color when I asked him what it was and then Mum told me I should know better than to repeat such awful things and then she made me swish with soapy water and the taste wouldn't come out for _two days_.

So I think I probably shouldn't ask her this time.

But luckily it's the first day of Christmas holidays! This means that Percy and Charlie are coming home from Hogwarts and Bill is staying at the house instead of his flat in Diagon Alley (which also means that Mum and Dad will be nagging at him again about why he should live at home to save money and then he'll tell them that he needs his privacy and then Mum will come at him with a pair of scissors and try to cut his hair when he's not looking). I think I'll ask Bill first.

Turns out Mum's not too worried about the hair anymore - Bill has an _earring_!

He puts his hand on my head and messes up my hair and calls me "Little Gin" and I tell him that his earring is _really cool_.

"Don't encourage him," Mum snaps from the kitchen. "He looks like a hooligen."

"It's wicked cool, Bill," George whispers, looking up from the pile of green plastic army men that he and Fred just got Bill to spell to fight each other.

Bill laughs but ignores Mum, and I follow him into the dining room when he walks in to start setting the table. "Bill, what's a period?" I ask.

He stops, a fork in mid air above a place setting, and turns and looks at me. "Merlin!" he cries. "I don't visit home for a couple of months and you're asking about _periods_?" He shakes his head and puts down the fork. "Don't look at me, Ginny. This isn't my job."

I start to argue with him, but Mum walks into the room so I shut my mouth and wander back into the living room where Fred and George are. I'm about to ask _them_ , when I see Charlie coming out of the bathroom. I figure he's older so he must know more, and I follow him into the room he used to share with Bill and Percy.

"Hey Charlie?" I sit down on the lower bunk bed and he looks up from where he'd been shoving a schoolbook into his bag.

"Hi, Ginny. What's up?"

"Mum says your girlfriend's coming over for dinner tonight," I say, trying to make conversation.

He flushes slightly, looking pleased. "Yeah. I think you'll like her, Ginny. She's very cool."

I wait a few seconds before launching in again. "What's a period?"

He turns a little white, and the freckles on his face seem even redder. "Um... it's something a girl... I mean, when you're older..." He's stammering, and he slumps onto the bed beside me. "Ask someone else, will you, Ginny?" he pleads.

He obviously _knows_ , so I almost try to convince him to tell me, but he just looks so uncomfortable that I don't. I like Charlie.

"Okay," I say, and walk out of the room, through the kitchen, and outside to where Percy is sitting on the back porch reading a book.

"Percy, what's a period?" I ask.

"Punctuation," he says, not looking up. "You put it at the end of a sentence."

"Percy, I don't think that's what - "

"Don't bother me, Ginny, I'm reading."

I scowl at him but he can't see me because his nose is buried in that stupid book, so I stomp my feet on the wood as I walk back into the house. He doesn't seem to notice.

Fred and George are still playing with the army men. "What's a period?" I demand, walking up to them.

"Something girls..."

"... like to talk about..."

"... when they think we're not listening..."

"... if you find out, let us know, will you?"

I sigh, long and loud, but Fred and George just shrug. I don't know why I'm even bothering because he's barely even older than me, but I go find Ron outside in the front yard anyway. He's playing with a Chudley Cannons miniature; it's zooming around on its broomstick.

"Hey Ron, what's a period?" I ask.

He catches the flying miniature in his hand and makes a face at me. "How I am supposed to know? Go away!"

"Boys _stink_ , boys _stink_ , boys _stink_ ," I chant under my breath as I stomp back into the house, and I nearly run into someone who's standing in the doorway.

"I'm inclined to agree with you most of the time," she says, grinning at me. She looks about Charlie's age and she has bright purple hair. Her hair is cooler than Bill's earring.

"You must be Charlie's girlfriend," I say importantly, sticking out my hand. "I'm Ginny."

She laughs. "I figured that much. After all, it's hard to miss the only girl in a family of brothers." She shakes my hand, bending down at the waist so that she can look me in the eye. "I'm Tonks," she says.

"That's a funny name."

"Well, it's my last name. My real name is..." She leans down even further, so that she's almost whispering in my ear, "Nymphadora. But every time Charlie tries to call me that I punch him in the ear."

I giggle. "My real name's Ginevra, and I punch Ron in _nose_ when he calls me that. Of course, then Mum sends me to my room. But it's worth it."

For a minute, I wish that Tonks is my sister. She's older and cool and I'll bet she has a lot of neat clothes that I could wear around the house and she probably knows things about being a girl that Mum doesn't want to tell me and that my brothers _just don't know_.

Like about periods.

"Hey, Tonks?" I ask, pulling her to the side before she can get all the way into the house and announce her presence. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all."

"What's a period?"

She grins. "How old are you?"

"Seven and a half."

"Well, I guess it's not all _that_ surprising that you don't know, then. Just don't tell your Mum you asked me instead of her."

And then she tells me. All about periods. And I make faces and little shrieks and she laughs and tells me that it's not really as bad as it sounds and it's just all part of being a girl. One of the things that makes us different than boys, she tells me, that makes us _special_.

I ask her if there's anything that makes boys special, and she says that there probably is but she hasn't figured it out yet.

I ask her if she's going to marry Charlie and she laughs and says she's only fifteen so probably not. I tell her that she should, because I'd really like to have her as a sister. Or she could marry Bill, I tell her. He's got a wicked cool earring.

She puts her arm around me when we walk into the house, and Fred and George mutter about stupid _girls_ and how they always band together right away.

Then Ron walks in and says, "I see you met Ginevra," and I punch him in the nose.

Mum sends me to my room but it's worth it. And later Tonks brings me a chocolate frog and tells me that I can owl her any time I have questions about girl things.

I think I want to be just like her when I'm older and I get my period. Except for the part about kissing Charlie. That's gross.


End file.
